Archive for the ‘
Jason Dark ’ Category

Those of you familiar with my book “The Doctor, %%% % % % ” or “Dr. Prometheus” as it was previously called, may already know the answer to it, but here’s a little background on my writing of the Jason Dark series.

When I first set out to write the series one of the things I really wanted to include were historical and literary references to create a sense of alternate history rather than just plain gothic horror or supernatural thriller. At the same time I didn’t want to to make it too blatant. I aimed to place them so that they are oftentimes subtle little hints, evident only to the initiated, people familiar with certain periods of history, certain locales or certain pieces of literature or oftentimes even song lyrics. Yes, if you think you’ve spotted a loose reference to a Judas Priest song, you might be absolutely right… Lyrics like “The figure stands expressionless, impassive and alone” are just too powerful images to ignore and they conjure up worlds in my mind that I try to translate to my stories occasionally, giving a nod to the source with a few words that directly hint at their origins.

More often than lyrics, however, I use references to actual historical events and personalities, as well as literary figures. Anyone who’s been reading “Theater of Vampires” will have noticed a certain person approaching Jason Dark in the foyer of the Duke’s Theater. His appearance instantly begs the question, when will he meet the other guy making up the team? Depending on how far you’ve read through the series, let me just say, he will meet him-first fleetingly in one story-then in a head-on matching of their minds on another further down the line. Fun…

Assuming most of you are familiar with “Demon’s Night,” the first book in the series, I wonder how many of you remember what happened to the horse carriage the demon abandoned in Trafalgar Square. Do you? A man made a very brief appearance, taking care of the exhausted horses, leading them away, with the demon’s residue still lingering inside the coach. The man’s name was… John Netley. Who is he? Glad you asked, because John Netley was the man who allegedly drove Jack the Ripper through the streets of Whitechapel as he was hunting and killing women in 1888.

BAM!

See what I did there? I wove reality and fiction together in a way that is perfectly harmonious-at least it is to me-because the implications are just too perfect. First I had to do something with the horse carriage. I couldn’t just leave it abandoned in the square, so I needed someone to take care of them. Who better than a young man who would around that time become a coach driver and turn it into his business. With demonic residue still lingering in the coach, it is not too much of a leap of faith that it was this demonic influence that drove the Ripper to do his notorious deeds, and that turned the young man of a driver into a tool of evil, helping with the ghastly murders. It all fell into place and I was able to use the historical descriptions of the Ripper horse carriage to describe the one in my book.

I love it when things fall into place like this and allow me to create seemingly insignificant moments-almost like throwaway paragraphs-that fit into a much bigger and elaborate picture. The books are full of them and the next time you read one of my books try to keep an eye out for these moments and references-and let me know when you spot one. Post here, and share your findings with other readers.

So, what do Alice Cooper and “The Doctor” have in common? No doubt, you are still asking yourself that question. Even though completely anachronistic, Alice Cooper shows up in the book, but… yes, here comes the but, but before, let me tell you the why. I’ve been a fan of Alice’s work since I was an early teenager, more years ago that I’d like to admit. He’s always been a modern day gothic horror icon to me, the way Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, or Vincent Price were, because his theatrics have always been geared towards the creepy visuals. So, it made sense for me to pay homage to him, and I did. In the form of a corpse. Remember Alice has had many acts in his show where he hangs himself, or gets decapitated, etc, so having him as a corpse made perfect sense. But he is not just any corpse. He is undead, as the Doctor revives him with his evil magic.

I felt that simply dropping Alice Cooper in the story would be too jarring, the anachronism too stark. It felt too blatant, so I upped the ante and actually included him under his actual name, not his stage persona. Therefore, the character you will find in “The Doctor” is Vincent Furnier-exhumed by grave robbers and reanimated by the Doctor. Here’s a brief excerpt to give you a taste…

Pale and bare-chested, the bloodless corpse of a man lay on the operating table in the center of the room. His skin had an almost yellowish tinge. Unusually long black hair fell to the sides of his head in light, shaggy curls. The eyes, sunken deep into their sockets, looked already like the cavernous orifices of a skull. The body appeared intact, without notable scars; in fact, the dead man’s face had a rather peaceful look, despite the deep shadows cast by the murky, flickering light.
Somewhere in the distance a church bell rang and, joining it in a midnight duet, a dog began to bark.
“Well, Mr. Furnier,” a rich, baritone voice said softly, and a man appeared from the darkness. “Your audience is waiting.”

What do you make of this? It’s only a small portion. The entire scene is filled with references to Alice Cooper and his music. Try to find them, and post them here.

But what’s more, just to show you how dense some of these injected references are, even that small excerpt above contains yet another reference to something unrelated to Alice Cooper. I challenge you to find it. Tell me where the reference is and what it actually refers to. I wonder if anyone can spot it.

Did you get a taste yet? Believe me when I say that the Jason Dark books are filled with these kinds of hidden nods, sometimes very openly, sometimes much more hidden. It is one of the small things that makes writing the stories so much fun for me.

Well, then, who can solve the puzzle? What is the reference I mentioned in the passage above? I can’t wait to hear your thoughts and comments.

The best books usually read very naturally, with a rhythm that flows easily and almost reads itself, using language that perfectly suits the premise and characters. How many times have you stopped and thought about how it got to that point? Well, one answer is that these writers have a talent and the perfect concoction of words just flows from their handcrafted quills.

Sorry to disappoint, but, no, that’s not how it works. Usually, there is a lot of wringing of hands and pulling of hair involved—one of the reasons why so many writers are bald. No, it’s true, they just wear wigs to hide the secret to perfect writing.

The reality of writing is that it is a lengthy and time-consuming process. The job of a writer is not only to cough up the words but writing a book is a process during which you are making thousands of decisions. All those cool events in that story you’re reading need to be thought up and detailed out. Is that corridor leading to the left or to the right, or is it perhaps leading downstairs? What about furniture and decor? Who picked the wallpaper? Does it look spartan or is it richly furnished, and if so, with what?

Every scene in a book requires countless decisions to be made. Some come naturally out of the overall context, but many times, these decisions can be stubbornly hard. So hard, in fact, that the most typical problem of “writer’s block” is that the writer is simply not ready to commit to a decision and stalls the process as a result. It is more common than you might think because it is hard for a writer to make certain decisions. They lock you down on a certain path and it just may not be what the story needs later down the road.

The same decision-making process often applies to the writing itself. Questions, such as which words to use, how to describe settings and events, how to paint characters, their idiosyncrasies, their speech patterns and behavior, all of these things require forethought and a brick-load of decision making. As a result many writers—myself included—write their books in iterations.

Yeah, we’re about as perfect as the gnarled roots of that Ficus tree in your backyard. Even the best of writers have to go back and rework their creative flow. Let me show you how this works, how a paragraph of text is shaped and polished in such an iterative process, from its first draft to the final version you will find in the published book.

When I first write a book, I typically do not concern myself with grammatical details and style all that much. I try to write what is in my mind, without losing too much time so I won’t lose my train of thought. This can be very rough sometimes, but it does not matter because it is easy enough to clean up at a later time. The point is to get the story out and written down before it takes a one-way trip to Europe and never returns.

I find that during times I sink into what is called a “writer’s dream.” It doesn’t mean I’m writing in my sleep, but rather that I am completely absorbed and focused on the story. During those times I will see the scene I am writing before my mind’s eye, like a movie, and I am caught up in it, simply dumping it into the computer the way I dream it. I see characters act, react, and talk, allowing me to adapt believable speech patterns and behaviors for those characters. Oftentimes I will actually see specific actors in these parts, helping me to visualize the scene unfold even better. Before you ask, yes, I do have an actor I see when I think of Jason Dark, but I will not tell you who it is. No offense, but I just don’t want you to have any preconceived notions when reading about Jason Dark. The character is for you to experience and shape in your own imagination.

Once the story found its way into my computer, I have what is called a First Draft. This first draft is a rough unpolished piece of writing that will require a serious amount of work before it is ready for the prime time. Let me illustrate this with an excerpt from my book “Hunted,” the most recent Jason Dark thriller. What you see below is the first draft version. This is what I dumped out of my brain and into the silicon nethers of my computer, complete with typos and errors, without any work or cleanup done to it. Not very glorious, but well deserving to show the process.

A pale moon appeared from behind its veil of clouds and cast its hues across the gaslit streets of London, the pale blue fingers crawling across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as always, oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its inhabitants.
A breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer a few days ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, moving into every side street and court in the dockyards where ships were moored and guarded by the dim light of unsteady lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, like parchment, and blotched with rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds with no sign of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin, red rim and a small gold tassel.

With the first draft out of my system, I will usually set it aside for at least a week or two, without looking at it or even thinking about it. I do this so I lose my immediate attachment with the words. I’ve seen too many writers go mad over the prospect of having to change the words they set down in the manuscript because they were so much in love with them, they actually wanted to marry them. To avoid my trip to the looney bin, I distance myself from my initial brain dump, so that it becomes nothing more than an assortment of words and sentences.

I want to have a fresh approach to the book. I don’t want to get stuck in the same thought patterns I had when writing the book. I want to keep my mental health and more importantly, I want to experience it more like a reader than the writer. It makes an enormous difference. As writers, we analyze sentences—even those of other authors—and it is about as impossible to turn that mentality off as it is to get a politician to put together a clear sentence. That is not how your average reader perceives the book, however. They want to be entertained. They want to dive into it and immerse themselves in your story.

So, after some time has passed I will read the book. Very slowly, sentence by sentence. I will look for spelling errors, I will check the sentences for grammatical issues. Does it sound right or do sound like a pompous douche? Did I get my point across or have I been overly obtuse? I look for instances where I could perhaps shuffle around a sentence so it becomes more powerful.

Below you will find the same paragraph as before, only this time I have made a first revision pass at it. Note how certain things have changed. These might look like small changes, but the thing about really good writing is that its beauty is in the detail. One word changed can make a world of difference and truly elevate the impact of the text to a new level, or it can improve readability, allowing the sentence to roll all of its own.

The pale face of the moon appeared from behind its veil of clouds and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers crawling across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as always, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its inhabitants.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where ships were moored and guarded by the dim light of unsteady lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, like parchment, and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin, red rim and a small gold tassel.

After this first revision, I will immediately go back and read the book again. This is important to me because I now have the entire story and plot details still vividly in my mind. This step, to me, is crucial to hammer consistency into the story so that forward references are correct and actually make sense to the reader. I can mentally check if the information a character is referring to is actually known to him at that point in time. As a writer, it is all too easy to get caught up in the writer’s dream that we will occasionally forget to introduce key elements, hints or even people.
During this second reading, I will also constantly keep an eye on my verbs. Big step, that. Catch weak verbs and replace them with much stronger and all of a sudden you sound like a real Steinbeck. In fact, the maestro himself was one of the strongest proponents of strong verbs.

Use verbs, not adjectives, to keep your sentences moving. All fine prose is based on the verbs carrying the sentences.

There you go, straight from the master’s mouth. Strong verbs put your sentences on steroids. In addition, I will look at my word pictures, the nouns and descriptions I am using, to ensure my writing is as evocative as it can be.
At this stage I will also pay close attention to the rhythm and flow of the text. I will check the beginnings of sentences to make sure they are varied and interesting. If I notice too many sentences in a row starting with “He,” for example, I know it is time to shake my writing like a cup of dice and work some rephrasing magic.

Below, for your pleasure, you will once again find the same passage as before. This time he version after I took a second pass at it. Once again, notice the subtle differences, and observe how these small changes actually do make a big difference.

The pale face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin, red rim and a small gold tassel.

At this time, I am usually close to what I want my text to be. If I am not entirely satisfied at this point, I will repeat the aforementioned process until I feel the text has reached the level of maturity that I am after. With each iteration, however, it becomes more and more important to keep the original intention in mind. It is all too easy to completely lose the original voice of the text by accident, which is, of course, not something I want to happen. The original zest of the story and its tone is critical and needs to stay intact. It will always take precedence over second-guessing myself.

It is time to give the book one more read. During this stage, I will try to put on my reader hat. I will read the book and take note of things that stick out, such as spelling errors and typos, or missing or misplaced punctuation marks. I will also note down adverbs as I encounter them to go back after the read and see if I can perhaps remove them, or replace them with stronger verbs instead. This I will do after the read because at this stage I want to experience the story as a whole and not break up the reading with a lot of distracting editing.

Below you will find the excerpt from “Hunted,” once again with these kinds of changes applied.

The pale face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and driving out the stench at last, that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a single muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin blood-red rim and a small gold tassel.

At this point, I usually ask my wife, Lieu, to read it before I actually publish it. She is the Jason Dark series editor and knows the characters perhaps better than I do. She was usually also the person who helped me put together the storyline by providing input, suggestions and ideas, so she is very well suited to let me know when a character in my book acts out-of-character.

Lieu also has an uncanny ability to pick up on loose ends or things that make no sense. It makes for great commentary track while watching bad movies or TV shows, incidentally, and is incredibly valuable to me in my own books. She will point these issues out to me and ask questions, such as, “Why did the bad guy wait around all this time? He could have killed them on page 34 already.” It is then up to me to make things fit and perhaps add a sentence or reference in certain places of the story to make sure it all happens for a reason.

What comes next is crucial. At the same time it is, sadly, the step that all too many independent and self-published authors skip. Bring in the Editor!

I will send my book off to my editor, usually my friend Terry Coleman, in the case of the Jason Dark books. The job of the editor is essentially the same I have done in all the above steps, only that now it is being performed by a trained expert who has no prior affiliation with the text. He has a completely new set of eyes, he has a wealth of experience, he is a walking dictionary, thesaurus, and etymologist all wrapped in one person. Terry knows things I don’t. He notices things I don’t. He sees misplaced modifiers that I read over. He notices when something doesn’t make sense or feels stilted. He knows dialects and can polish the things people say, and he does all of that without breaking a sweat, before breakfast. In short, an editor is the ultimate egg-laying-wool-milk-hog.

Terry will return my book with all sorts of corrections and comments inserted as notes in the document. I will accept or reject these comments and correction suggestions at my own discretion, but even when I disagree with his suggestions, I will ALWAYS think about them before dismissing them. Most of the time I find that he is correct and that a small clarification here, or a restructuring there may lead to a stronger emotional response, or will simply improve the writing in general.

Below you will find the same passage we’ve been looking at all this time in its form, after Terry went over it.

The pallid face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a single muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat crowned the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin blood-red rim and a small gold tassel.

This is the way I had the passage published before, but at a later point fancy tickled me to give the book a read. Don’t know, why. Just so happened. It struck me immediately that after such a long absence, my mindset had completely changed and I began re-writing the passage extensively.

The pallid face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, revealing small swirls of fog that drifted lazily through the night air. Its pale blue fingers crept across the desiccated features of a strange figure that stood, hiding motionlessly, in a darkened doorway, bereft of any life, it would seem. The city was bustling, as usual, all but unsuspecting of the evil that hid in the tenebrious shadows of its cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its unsuspecting denizens. Oblivious to the sinister thoughts it harbored.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, driving fresh sea air through the city, and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where ships groaned at anchor, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garb. Impassive, not a single muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, and blotched with ages of rot, the skin hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that exhibited no signs of life. A velvet hat crowned the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin blood-red rim and a small gold tassel.

Gosh dang it, it actually got longer. After taking a few notes while reading the book, I actually decided to really rework the entire book. I pulled out the fine-toothed comb I use to coiffeur my words and went to work. By the time I was done, what used to be a 25,000-word novella had suddenly turned into a 45,000-word novel. Even threw in a few new chapters, characters and plot twists while I was at it.

Like the computer games I created in the past, it made me realize that a book is never really finished. We just stop working on it.

As you can see, writing a book is a lot more involved than simply putting down the initial text. It is a process that is iterative and very time-consuming, and can be extremely draining. But if done right, the end result can be exceedingly rewarding, for both, the writer and the reader equally. A carefully crafted book is a thing of beauty and well worth the effort.

There you have it. A lot of reading involved here, and the fact that you made it down here shows that you really care. So, if you haven’t done so yet, no would be a tremendously great time to grab a copy of “Hunted,” over on Amazon. It’s totally awesome. It really is, and I just proved to you how serious I am about the book. I’ve worked it over and over again. Surely that warrants your support, won’t it? And once I got you on the hook with “Hunted,” there’s no reason for you not to go back and read all the other Jason Dark books I have available. Support the arts. Support me!

For most of us, the name of Scotland Yard is synonymous with detective stories. Whether it is Sherlock Holmes, the books of Agatha Christie or Edgar Wallace, or even the exploits of Jack the Ripper, the involvement of Scotland Yard roots these stories, often elevating the institution to mythical heights. Its involvement lends credence to the powers of traditional law enforcement.

The Yard has long been part of my Jason Dark supernatural mysteries in a variety of ways, not in the least through the fact that Inspector Lestrade calls upon Jason Dark and Siu Lin on occasion. Since the cases of the ghost hunters involve killings and deaths, it is only natural that the two occult detectives have a lot of contact with Scotland Yard.

At one point I began to wonder what would happen if the powers of the Yard would were to realize Jason Dark’s skills and acknowledge his legitimacy. An idea evolved in my mind that, perhaps, they would offer him a job. More to the point, perhaps, would they even open a department for the special kinds of cases he is regularly involved in?

Traditionally, Scotland Yard worked in Divisions. Greater London was divided into a number of sections that had a degree of autonomy under the Scotland Yard umbrella. In history, H Division became the most notorious one, no doubt. It covered London’s East End, and among it the Whitechapel district, the part of town with the largest crime rate and, of course, the killing grounds of the infamous Jack the Ripper. Other letters of the alphabet were assigned to other parts of the city. Interestingly, what many people do not know is that the City of London itself, which makes up only the very heart of what we typically consider London as a whole to be, had its very own police force and was not part of Scotland Yard’s jurisdiction.

While this divisionalization had its benefits, particularly as the city continued to grow, it also had its limitations, of course. To counter the shortcomings that arose from the many disjointed divisions, another department was founded, commonly known as CID, the Criminal Investigation Department. Without the jurisdictional limitations of separate divisions, CID operated independently and quickly took charge of cases surrounding murders and rapes. It is this division, in fact, that we usually associate with the name Scotland Yard. It consisted of detectives in plainclothes, often working undercover in disguise as they investigated the most notorious and brutal of cases in the Greater London area.

With all that in mind, I began to imagine the possibilities. What if Scotland Yard would indeed open a department dedicated to supernatural incidents? I foreshadowed the idea in a previous Jason Dark mystery also, “Curse of Kali,” and in the latest adventure, “Hunted,” I took that leap all the way and made it official. In the story you will find a scene in which Dark and Siu Lin are approached with the concept, as proposed by the Home Secretary and the Queen herself.

Like many of the historic references and character cameos I have constantly built into the series over its course, this once again added a nice touch to the story, I felt, expanding the horizon of Jason Dark’s world and the possibilities for me to play with the characters and settings. He would no longer be a civilian, scrutinized suspiciously by policemen on the beat. He would no longer be the prime suspect as people fall dead along his path, and he would suddenly have an entire police force at his disposal to help him solve cases. Not that I would want him to be regular copper, of course. Far from it. He is just not the type, but as you may agree, it would open up certain new thematic possibilities, not to mention the drama that would undoubtedly unfold if he were suddenly accountable to Queen Victoria herself. What is his relationship with the Queen, anyway?

Check out “Hunted” to find out how Jason Dark reacts to the Yard’s offer, though. It may be good for a few chuckles along the way as he improvises in critical moments. Naturally, the story as a whole is probably more interesting than that small tidbit alone, but it is like a proper spice. It adds dimension without getting in the way.

Therefore I would like to invite you to check out “Hunted” and get a taste of Jason Dark dealing with an exotic hopping vampire from China in an action-packed mystery that takes every last ounce of resourcefulness out of Dark and Siu Lin. The book has just been released and is now available for a limited time only for $0.99.

Today is a big day for me! It is a make-or-break kind of day, to be exact, because today I am giving Jason Dark a second lease on life.

When I first started my Jason Dark series of supernatural mysteries six years ago I had no idea where the adventure would take me. Ebooks were a technological aspiration that had not yet fully emerged, let away broken into the mainstream, and I simply wanted to spread my wings into true fiction writing, after having spent decades writing for computer games.

Consequently I wrote seven adventures featuring the inimitable ghost hunter Jason Dark and his sidekicks Siu Lin and Herbert, along with a serialized short story that was published in Fangoria magazine. Those who read the stories enjoyed them. some loved them—or so they said, and yet, the series never took off and I was forced to abandon it after finishing and publishing “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire” more than three years ago. It was a hard decision for me to walk away from the series. I had fallen in love with the characters and the setting of the series in Victorian England. Writing these stories was a dream come true on so many levels, but I simply could not afford spending any more time writing, publishing and promoting books that did not sell enough to make a living.

And so, the books languished for a long time, until earlier this year, I felt the urge to give it another try. The market had changed so much in those years. Ebooks are now fully established in the market, self-publishing was the only viable way for authors to get their work out, having practically replaced traditional publishing industry altogether, which had imploded by its own hand, helping its own demise along with an abandon of intelligence I have never seen before in any industry. But I digress…

It all started when I re-read “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire,” the last book in my series. I have the habit of taking notes constantly when I read—regardless of whose book it is—and I found that I had a lot of notes on this particular book. Notes where I felt the wording was weak, where more information would have been à propos, where the flow wasn’t as well-rounded as it could have been, and so on. It was then that I decided to give the book a good do-over and perhaps try to bring to full novel length. And so I got to work—and when I was done the book was 45k words long and deserved a new title—Hunted.

With that done, and the knowledge that new title would require a completely new launch of the book, it was almost a foregone conclusion to relaunch the entire series along with it. So I talked to Lieu Pham who has been creating hundreds of covers for clients and her Covertopia.com website. Together we went through every book in the series and she created a stunning new cover for each one.

At this time I also decided to make the first book in the series, “Demon’s Night” permanently free as a hook, to get readers to try out the series and hopefully continue from there. Although each of the Jason Dark adventures is a stand-along book that does not require any knowledge of the previous books, I understand that mean reader simply want to get into a series with the first book.

For me, the problem was that “Demon’s Night” was the first book I ever wrote—six years ago—so I wasn’t sure if the book would live up to expectations. While one could argue that a free book is a free book, my intention is to use it to introduce new readers to the series, and to hook them, and if that book is weak, clearly, the plan will not work.

I daresay that I have grown as a writer since and when I began re-reading the book to check on the quality of the writing, I very quickly realized that it, too, would require a bit of extra work, so I made some changes. Not to the same extent as I did with “Hunted” but I did clean out some sections and added more information, while also looking for grammar and, most importantly, wording issues.

The last step was reformatting all eleven eBooks in the series to update their look, making it more contemporary and more what you’d expect from current eBook technology. You may recall that I discussed the subject in a previous post called “The new look of Jason Dark.”

Which brings us to today’s launch. The new website is live, all the books have been updated in online stores, making sure readers can now grab fully updated copies with their beautiful new layout. And, of course, the crème de la crème, “Hunted” is now available for everyone to read!

The book is currently available at a $0.99 introductory price to help give the book a strong start. The first weeks of a book are the most critical because they determine how online stores like Amazon will treat the book, whether it is something worthy of recommending to their millions of readers or whether its fate will be more along the lines of “also ran.”

Help me bring “Hunted” to the forefront of readers’ minds, would you? It’s a 99 cent investment, less than a cup of coffee or a candy bar, and it will keep you entertained—I promise. Better yet, it will lure you back to the fog-shrouded streets of Victorian London and throw you in the middle of an action-packed mystery.

New York Time-bestselling writer Joe Nassise even compared my character Jason Dark to the likes of Carl Kolchak—don’t be afraid to show your age—and Fox Mulder. I felt incredibly humbled when I read his endorsement. I mean, we are talking about Mulder here… THE Fox Mulder!

So, if you’ve gotten curious, do yourself a favor. Buy the book—once again, it is only 99 cents currently, an investment I am certain you can afford—and help my Jason Dark series back on its feet. There are so many cool stories in the series, and so many more in my head that I have yet to write.

So, let’s get this show on the road. Let’s put Jason Dark and Siu Lin on the map for all fans of supernatural mysteries to find, and your purchase of the book will go a long way towards that goal.

Enough with the procrastinating, already… click on one of these links and get your copy of “Hunted” right now! If you don’t like the book, throw it in my face, and I’ll give you your money back. How’s that for a deal?

Many of you have probably heard by now that for the past months I’ve been busy at work to reinvigorate and relaunch my Jason Dark series of books. All the hard work is about to pay off, %%% % % % I hope, as I am nearing the launch date of September 14 for “Hunted,” the latest book in the series, and with it the relaunch of the series as a whole. Just to get you started off, here is a look at the cover for “Hunted,” which shows off nicely the new style that all new covers in the series sport.

As part of the process to breathe some new, fresh air into the Jason Dark books, I reworked the first book “Demon’s Night” once again, ironing out some things I wasn’t too happy with upon re-reading the story a while ago. More importantly, however, all the books in the series have been completely reformatted from scratch, using some of the more advanced formatting features that eBook readers of the current generation can handle.

Here’s a look at the new look of the eBook versions for you.

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Compared to the simplistic look of the original stories, you can see, that the new layout is much friendlier on the eye with plenty of white space.

A beautiful splatter of ink appears at the beginning of each new chapter, adding style to the layout. The splatter was actually the idea of Lieu Pham from Covertopia.com, who also redesigned all the covers for the series, and you would not believe what a difference it made once I dropped it into the page. Small things, such as this can often make a huge difference and her experienced design eye instantly realized the potential.

The new layout also features custom fonts to create a brand-look for the books. The chapter title itself is using the same font that is found on the book covers, creating visual continuity throughout the book and with it, the entire series.

In addition, I opted for the use of a large initial and first-line small caps for the beginning of each chapter. For that I also used a custom font to create an intricate, yet delicate look that is open and breathes. Naturally, the use of custom fonts and features such as this is not without issues, as those of you familiar with formatting limitations of eBooks will know. Not all devices support custom fonts, the small-caps feature or the way I set up the initials. It was important to me, however, to push the series forward, even if it meant using formatting features, even if it meant that older devices may not be able to display the pages exactly the same way. In a worst-case scenario, older devices will abandon the custom fonts in favor of the device default font, it will ignore the small-caps command, leaving the first line of the chapter formatted the same way as the rest of the text, and it may ignore the set-up of my initial, rendering it as a regular character, the same size as the rest of the text. While it may not have the glamor of the “advanced” layout of modern devices, I made sure that it won’t result in a garbled display and still look perfectly fine.

The Jason Dark website has been completely revamped as well, and you can see it in all its glory here – www.jasondarkseries.com. Check out all the new covers for each of the books. Fans familiar with the series will also notice that I have changed the title of the adventure “Dr. Prometheus” to “The Doctor,” a title that I think works much better.

With only a few days left before the official launch, the next few days will be filled with a flurry of activities, all to raise awareness of the series and the upcoming new book.

You want to help me make this launch an all-out success story? It’s really easy. Just share with your friends the news of the upcoming release and the overhaul of the entire series. Point them towards the website, let them know that “Hunted” will be available on September 14 with a limited time price of only $0.99, remind them how important reviews are, or simply show them the cool new look of the books, over on the official website.

Those of you who have been following my blog for some time may actually be frowning at this headline. Why? Well, for one thing, because I have been a very outspoken opponent of Kindle Select in the past. In many ways I still am, %%% % % % but for a number of reasons I have decided to give it a try with one of my books. When you have one book that you wrote, it is a very dangerous thing to put all your eggs in one basket, but when you have fifteen books available for sale, like I do, the risk to use one of them as a test balloon is mitigated. So, I decided to give Kindle Select a try with my Jason Dark supernatural mystery “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire.” It is the eleventh installment in the series, and to date, the last one. It is, in my opinion, one of the best books in the series with the strongest writing—and yet, it sold noticeably less copies than the previous books in the series.

That was, in fact, one of the main reasons why I decided to give Kindle Select a try. My sales on channels other than Amazon were virtually nil, particularly for this book, so it is the perfect candidate to see if the much-hyped Kindle Select program, and its opportunity to give your book away for free for a limited period of time is really part of the secret recipe to kickstart book sales. The logic escapes me somehow, but hey, who am I to argue…yet? I’ll try and see.

Yet another why I decided to give it a try is Amazon’s relatively new Kindle Unlimited program. It is catering to people who read a lot and for a flat $9.99 per month fee you can read as many books from the Kindle Unlimited library as you want. I am a slow reader and I simply do not have the time to spare to make it worth the subscription fee, but I hear it has become quite popular with many of the voracious readers that the Kindle has produced. If I can get readers interested in “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire,” perhaps they will go back and try some of the other books in the Jason Dark series, none of which, I might add, are enrolled in Kindle Select and Kindle Unlimited, but are available at a low price as individual books and as part of Jason Dark Collections.

So, if you have been unsure about my Jason Dark supernatural mysteries and would like to give it a try, here is your chance. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, borrow a copy of the book for free now, or get it for free through your Kindle Unlimited subscription. It is an exciting mix of adventure, mystery and a good bit of gothic horror with some Steampunk thrown into the mix. In short, it is exactly the right mix for this Halloween season! Think of it as “Penny Dreadful” meets “Sherlock Holmes” meets “Van Helsing,” and you get the idea!

When you read a book, it is sometimes hard to fathom the amount of work that goes into the words on the page. It just all seems so natural, flowing with ease at just the right pace to create suspense or tension.

The reality of writing is that it is a lengthy and time-consuming process. The job of a writer is not only to cough up the words, but writing a book is a process during which you are making thousands of decisions. All the cool events in that story you’re reading need to be thought up and detailed out. Is that corridor leading to the left or to the right, or is it perhaps leading downstairs? What about furniture and decor? Does it look spartan or is it richly furnished, and if so, with what?

Every scene in a book requires countless decisions to be made. Some come naturally out of the overall context, but many times, these decisions can be hard to make for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it is hard for a writer to make a decision, because we don’t want to commit to something just yet, as the story might require something different later on.

The same decision making process often applies to the writing itself. Things such as which words to use, how to describe settings and events, how to paint characters, their idiosyncrasies, their speech patterns and behavior, all of these things require forethought and a lot of decision making. As a result many writers — myself included — write their books in iterations.

I want to show you how this works and how a piece of text is shaped and polished in such an iterative process, from its first draft to the final version you will find in the published book.

When I write a book I typically do not get up with grammatical details and style all that much. I try to write what is in my mind, without losing to much time so I won’t lose my train of thought. I find that many times I sink into what is called a “writer’s dream.” It is a time where I am writing and I am completely focused on the story. During those times I will see the scene I am writing before my mind’s eye, like a movie, and I am caught up in it, simply dumping it into the computer the way I dream it. I see characters act, react, and talk, allowing me to adapt believable speech patterns and behaviors for those characters. Oftentimes I will actually see specific actors in these parts, helping me to visualize the scene unfold even better. Before you ask, yes, I do have an actor I see when I think of Jason Dark but I will not tell you who it is. No offense, but I just don’t want you to have any external connotations when reading about Jason Dark.

Once I have written down the story, I have what is called a First Draft. This first draft is a rough unpolished piece of writing that will require a serious amount of work before it is ready for the prime time. Below you will see an excerpt from “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire,” the most recent Jason Dark adventure. This is the first draft version. It is the result of my initial brain dump, complete with typos and errors, without any work or cleanup done to it.

A pale moon appeared from behind its veil of clouds and cast its hues across the gaslit streets of London, the pale blue fingers crawling across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as always, oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its inhabitants.
A breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer a few days ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, moving into every side street and court in the dockyards where ships were moored and guarded by the dim light of unsteady lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, like parchment, and blotched with rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds with no sign of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin, red rim and a small gold tassel.

Once my first draft is done, I will usually set it aside for at least two weeks without looking at it or even thinking about it. It is simmering there while I will lose my immediate attachment to the words I wrote. The reason for this is that I want to have a fresh approach to the book. I don’t want to get stuck in the same though patterns I had when writing the book. I want to read it more like a reader than the writer.
So, after some time has passed I will read the book. Very slowly, sentence for sentence. I will look for spelling errors, I will will check the sentences for grammatical issues. Does it sound right? Did I get my point across or have I been overly obtuse? I look for instances where I could perhaps shuffle around a sentence so it becomes more powerful.

Below you will find the same paragraph as above, only this time I have made a first revision pass at it. Note how certain things have changed. These might look like small changes, but the thing about really good writing is that its beauty is in the details. One word changed can make a world of difference and truly elevate the impact of the text to a new level.

The pale face of the moon appeared from behind its veil of clouds and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers crawling across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as always, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its inhabitants.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where ships were moored and guarded by the dim light of unsteady lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, like parchment, and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin , red rim and a small gold tassel.

Once I have completed this first revision, I will immediately go back and read the book again. This is important to me because I now have the entire story still in my mind and remember what happened through the book. This is crucial to make sure the story remains consistent, and so that forward references are correct. I can mentally check if the information a character is referring to is actually know to him at that point in time. As a writer it os all too easy to get caught up in the writer’s dream that we forget to introduce key elements, hints or even people.
During this second reading I will also constantly keep an eye on my verbs. I will look for stronger verbs wherever I can to make sure the sentences get across their meaning as powerfully as possible. In addition, I will look at my word pictures, the nouns and descriptions I am using, to ensure my writing is as evocative as it can be.
At this stage I will also pay close attention to the rhythm and flow of the text. I will check the beginnings of sentences to make sure they are varied and interesting. If I notice too many sentences in a row starting with “He,” for example, I know it is time to shake things up a little and work some rephrasing magic.

Below you will once again find the same passage as before, only this time after I went over it a second time. Once again you will notice the subtle differences, and you will hopefully see how these small changes actually do make a big difference.

The pale face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin, red rim and a small gold tassel.

At this time I am usually close to what I want my text to be. If I am not yet confident, I will repeat the process above until I feel the text has reached a level of maturity I am after. With each iteration, however, it becomes more and more important to keep the original intention in mind. It is all too easy to completely lose the original voice of the text by accident, which is, of course, not something you want to happen.

It is time to give the book one more read. During this stage I will try to put on my reader hat. I will read the book and take note of things that stick out, such as spelling errors and typos, or missing or misplaced punctuation marks. I will also note down adverbs I encountered to go back after the read and see if I can perhaps remove them, or replace them with stronger verbs still. This I do after the read, because at this stage I want to experience the story and not break up the reading with a lot of editing time.

Below you will find the excerpt from “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire” that you should be familiar with by now, with these changes applied.

The pale face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and driving out the stench at last, that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a single muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat was crowning the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin blood-red rim and a small gold tassel.

At this point, I usually ask my wife, Lieu, to read it before I actually publish it. She is the Jason Dark series editor and knows the characters perhaps better than I do. She was usually also the person who helped me put together the storyline by providing input, suggestions and ideas, so she is very well suited to let me know when a character in my book acts out-of-character.

Lieu also has an uncanny ability to pick up on lose ends pr things that make no sense. She will point these out to me and ask questions, such as, “Why did the bad guy wait all this time? He could have killed them on page 34 already.” It is then up to me to make things fit and perhaps add a sentence or reference in certain places of the story to make sure everything in the story happens for a reason.

What comes next is crucial. At the same time it is, sadly, the step that all too many independent and self-published authors skip — the Editor.

I will send my book off to my editor, my friend Terry Coleman, in the case of the Jason Dark books. The job of the editor is essentially the same I have done in all the above steps, only that now it is being performed by a trained expert who has no prior affiliation with the text. He has a completely new set of eyes, he has a wealth of experience, he is a walking dictionary, thesaurus and etymologist all wrapped in one person. Terry knows things I don’t. He notices things I don’t. He sees misplaced modifiers that I read over. He notices when something doesn’t make sense or feels stilted. He knows dialects and can polish the things people say, and so forth. In short, an editor is an egg-laying-wool-milk-pig.

Terry will return my book to me with all sorts of corrections and comments inserted as notes in the document. I will accept or reject these comments and correction suggestions at my own discretion, but even when I disagree with the suggestions he is making, I will ALWAYS think about them before dismissing them. Most of the time I find that he is correct and that a small clarification here, or a restructuring there may lead to a stronger emotional response, or will simply improve the writing in general.

Below you will find the same passage we’ve been looking at all this time in its final version, after Terry went over it.

The pallid face of the moon emerged from behind its veil of clouds, and cast silvery hues across the gaslit streets of London, its pale blue fingers creeping across the desiccated features of a strange figure hiding in a darkened doorway. The city was bustling, as usual, all but oblivious to the evil that walked the cobblestone streets, ready to suck the very life from its denizens.
A crisp breeze blew from the south, pushing fresh sea air through the city, and finally driving out the stench that had accompanied the dog days of late summer only a week ago. In serpentine wisps, a growing layer of fog wove its way through the moist night air, conquering every side street and court in the dockyards where moored ships groaned, guarded over by the unsteady light of dim lanterns.
The figure stood motionless, dressed in midnight blue silken garbs. Impassive, not a single muscle moved underneath the parchment skin. The man’s cadaverous features were mummified, and blotched with ages of rot. The skin was hanging from the skull bones in dry, crumbly folds that showed no signs of life. A velvet hat crowned the man’s head, all blue, except for a thin blood-red rim and a small gold tassel.

Now the book is finally ready to be read by general audiences. I will format it as an eBook and for the print edition, and will proceed to unleash it onto the unsuspecting public.

As you can see, writing a book is a lot more involved than simply putting down the initial text. It is a process that is iterative and very time consuming, and can be extremely draining. But if done right, the end result can be exceedingly rewarding, for both, the writer and the reader equally. A carefully crafted book is a thing of beauty and well worth the effort.

If I whet your appetite for some more, make sure to get yourself a copy of the book now for only $2.99 on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Kobo for all your favorite eBook reading devices. And if you don’t own an eBook reader, you know, of course, that you can download Kindle software or ePub readers for pretty much any gadget and computer for free.

If you’ve been following my blog or my Twitterstream, you will be aware that I’ve recently finished a new Jason Dark story. I began writing this series of supernatural mysteries taking place in Victorian England about 3 years ago. Revolving around the occult detective Jason Dark — kind of a Sherlock Holmes character facing paranormal cases — and his cast of sidekicks that includes Siu Lin and his friend Herbert, I’ve always been attracted and intrigued by the possibilities this series offered to me as a writer.

The most recent adventure, the eleventh in the series, is a perfect example, why. Titled “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire” the title alone says it all. I love to have fun with my stories. It gives me tremendous pleasure to take things that we are familiar with and give the my own spin. Like Doctor Fu Manchu, the criminal mastermind, brought to life by Sax Rohmer in 1912 – though it was first published in 1913. Fu Man Chu made a personal appearance in a previous Jason Dark adventure named “From a Watery Grave,” but only as a somewhat peripheral character that advanced the story. To celebrate the nefarious mastermind’s 100th anniversary, I felt it was time to put him the spotlight of one of my stories, and the idea for “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire” was born.

I already foreshadowed the story in Jason Dark’s tenth mystery, “Curse of Kali,” but I have to be perfectly honest that at the time I wrote those foreshadowing scenes, I had absolutely no idea where I would eventually go with the actual story of “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire.” I just knew that I wanted to do something.

It all changed when lightning struck me in early November — figuratively speaking, of course. In one sparkling moment, just after Halloween, I suddenly knew how I could develop the story. I had the germ for a unique approach to the story, something that would make sure it’s not just another vampire story, and the key how to make the Jiang Shi, the hopping Chinese vampires, truly formidable opponents.

I kept the idea in my head for three days, trying to turn it down, because I had decided some time earlier in the year not to write any more Jason Dark stories for a number of reasons. You can’t keep a good idea down, though, and it just begging. There was a time when the idea teased me with cookies and even bribed me with the promise of riches. Like I would fall for that…

Be that as it may, I finally gave in. I just wanted to write this story so badly. I decided put everything else aside and began to write. After twelve days, the story was done. That is the fastest I ever completed a Jason Dark story. Traditionally, it always took me about twice as long, but this one just begged to come out. With minimal pre-planning, I simply wrote the story from beginning to end. That in itself is very unusual for me, as I have a tendency to write my books out of order. Ordinarily, I write whichever scene I feel like at any given day. But in this case, it was truly like telling the story from beginning to end. I knew exactly where I wanted to go and I went for it.

Interestingly, “Fu Man Chu’s Vampire” also turned out to be the longest of all Jason Dark adventures so far. In fact, after my fourth draft, it was about 25 percent longer than the other stories, and the final editing add even a little more bulk to it. So, it is easy to see that I enjoyed writing it, as there was none of the struggle that usually accompanied the other adventures — to some degree, at least.

Ultimately, it is a reflection of the plot, I think. I wanted to present Fu Man Chu as a larger-than-life villain without him being an entirely supernatural creature. He is, after all, a human. Fortunately, the titular vampire is not and the teaming up of the two allowed me to do some really cool things.

As with all the Jason Dark supernatural mysteries, I also wanted to add some nice drama and unexpected turns to the story to show off my cast’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses. I’d love to tell you more about how Siu Lin drfuf jrjf nfb yogifjfndnd… oops, sorry, I am evidently not at liberty to tell you details. You will have to get yourself a copy and read the story. 🙂

Take it from me, though, that it is a fun ride and the fact that I had a blast writing it should, in theory, be reflected in the writing — or so I hope.

Get yourself a copy of the book now for only $2.99 on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Kobo for all your favorite eBook reading devices. And if you don’t own an eBook reader, you know, of course, that you can download Kindle software or ePub readers for pretty much any gadget and computer for free.

It is available for only $2.99 on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Kobo for all your favorite eBook reading devices or software.

Want to know little more about it? Well, here is the book’s synopsis. As you can see this Victorian-era supernatural mystery is not your average off-the-mill adventure. If truly despicable villains and hopping vampires straight out of China are you bag, you simply owe it to yourself to give this new book a try.

When ordinary measures are no longer enough, criminal mastermind Fu Man Chu makes use of a supernatural henchman to get his way. Soon, Scotland Yard is confronted with a series of unexplainable deaths that unsettle Victorian London, and Inspector Lestrade turns to occult detective Jason Dark and Siu Lin for help.
But as they look into the case, little do the ghost hunters suspect that the evil crime lord has already made them the vampire’s next target!
Filled with enough mystery, drama and suspenseful action to transport you to the sinister streets of gaslit London, your encounter with the extraordinary awaits as a new nightmare emerges and an old nemesis returns.

Once again, let me remind you that the book is available now for only $2.99 on Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Kobo for all your favorite eBook reading devices or software. There is no justifiable reason why you should not own a copy… seriously!

Usually, these collections are priced $6.99 on Amazon. They feature three Jason Dark stories each, along with the bonus short story “Food for the Dead,” which ran in Fangoria Magazine as a serialized short earlier this year.

Because I was in an experimental mood – I think my friend Scott Nicholson starts to have a bad influence on me – I decided from one moment to the other to simply reduce the price of the collection to $2.99 for the weekend.

To make a long story short, and to save you any more of my yapping, make sure to grab it while the price is still there.